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Rating: 
Summary: Laugh-out-loud funny
Review: As others have said, definitely read other Thompson books first ("The Killer Inside Me" or "The Criminal" would be excellent choices), but this is a great book. By modern standards, it's tame. The title seems an exageration, given Thompson's self-censoring repression of anything truly ribald, profane or shocking ... though maybe this is more a reflection of where pop culture has come today than of Thompson. That said, the book is extremely funny in places & a great insight into the writer. For the truth behind Thompson's stories, try Robert Polito's excellent biography, "Savage Art," which is a must for anyone who gets really interested in Thompson anyway. If you read many Thompson books, there's a good chance you'll get seriously interested.
Rating: 
Summary: more of an autiobiographical novel than an autobiography
Review: I don't think anyone could dispute that Thompson has taken many liberties in retelling his own story. Even so, the stories are well-written and wildly entertaining. The fabrications don't detract from the overall enjoyment, they enhance it. You find in these pages the roots of many Thompson characters. That is a large part of the fun. The chapters are very short, giving Bad Boy an addictive quality. You'll likely finish it quickly and wish that there was more(there is: Rough Neck). Bad Boy is funny, twisted, ugfly and occasionally tender. Jim Thompson created an image for himself. This is merely the autobiography of that self-made image. If you want more fact than fiction you should check out one of his biographies. I wouldn't recommend this as a first Thompson book. Get familiar with him first...and then check out this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: Written by pulpmaster Jim Thompson, Bad Boy is a collection of autobiographical vignettes that focus on his early life. As other reviewers have pointed out, many of these stories contain obvious exaggerations and embellishments. Poetic license, if you will.
The first 25% of the book, the part that deals with his early childhood, is just plain bad. Reading it is like watching The Little Rascals. Which is to say it gets old very quickly. If the entire book were like this, it would only rate one or two stars.
However, Bad Boy becomes somewhat more interesting as Thompson reaches his teen years and begins to try his hand at different part time jobs, learning important lessons along the way. Especially engaging is his account of hotel life from a bellhop's perspective. And later, as he describes his experience as an itinerant oil field worker in West Texas, we are treated to glimpses of good insightful writing.
Overall, this book is a disappointment. Not surprisingly, the few good parts are almost always found where Thompson tells it like it is, or rather like it was. The places where he forgoes the embellishments and plays it straight. After all, though fiction is often best when it sounds like fact, the reverse is seldom the case.
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